PAX East 2017: Friday the 13th Panel Shows Off Graphic New Trailer

Not for the faint of heart

by Graham Banas Tue 14th Mar 2017

Just like PAX East 2016, Gun Media had a panel for its asymmetrical multiplayer game about everyone's favorite masked killer at PAX East 2017. We've been following the progress of Jason Voorhees' latest adventure with a rather large amount of excitement, and those in attendance this year were treated to a marvellous new trailer.

The trailer shows just how much progress the team has made with the game as we get closer to launch. The environments look so much more detailed and fascinating, and everything down to lighting and animation just looks so much better. Particularly striking is the way Jason himself moves. It's a 1:1 recreation of how the crazed killer moves in the films. This should come as no surprise to anyone keeping up with the games news, as Kane Hodder, who was Jason in four of the franchise's films did the mo-cap work for the hulking horror.

The developer's fondness for this franchise was on full display for the franchise at last year's panel, and this year was no different, as the environments and even some of the characters – such as Cory Feldman's Tommy Jarvis – have been lovingly recreated for this game. It's great to see just how much the dev cares about the property, and makes this product that much more promising.

One word of warning, though: if you're even the slightest bit squeamish, this trailer is something you might want to skip, as it is incredibly brutal and violent. Otherwise, enjoy!

[source youtube.com]

For over a decade, Graham has been writing reviews for Push Square. In that period, he's encountered an innumerable amount of high-quality experiences, and yes, several duds. With an encyclopedic knowledge of games and studios, it should come as no surprise that he's comfortable playing any genre. However, when it comes time to write a review, you'll probably find that he gravitates towards music/rhythm games, and in more recent years, VR. If you let him talk about games long enough, he'll definitely let you know that his favorite game is Kentucky Route Zero.

1
HUMPERDOO
Tue 14th Mar 2017

I dunno. The environments look better for sure, but 4 minutes of pretty much just Jason chopping folks up doesn't do much for me. You can't exactly call that gameplay. If anything it's just gratuitous - and I say that as huge fan of horror and all it's sub-genres, meaning gratuitous violence isn't a problem for me in itself. But here it just looks like it's purpose is to deflect from potentially poor gameplay. The last trailer they put out that did show gameplay was awful, and that was only a few months back. Short-lived novelty thrills is my prediction.

2
gbanas92
Tue 14th Mar 2017

@PaperyWhiteBoy I dunno, to me the gameplay doesn't look bad per se, but more just strange. It comes off to me like the kind of gameplay that would feel really strange at first, but get a lot more fun as you play more. Particularly controlling Jason. Which looks super strange. It definitely doesn't seem as straightforward as say, Dead by Daylight, which is going for a similar kind of game. If I remember correctly, that one that showed off gameplay was quite an old build? But I'm not sure on that one. Might be misremembering.

3
HUMPERDOO
Tue 14th Mar 2017

@gbanas92 Sure, that probably was quite an old build, yeah. I guess I mean more that I'm not sure a montage of death animations equates to gameplay, and if it does I have to question the game's purpose. Just seems to me that either they don't have anything better to show than the last build (beyond improved environments) and are using the many gory deaths to cover that fact, or they're generally only interested in gory deaths, which doesn't bode well for a sustained, enjoyable and varied experience. Even games that revel in gore, like Mortal Kombat or God of War, for instance, know that gets old fast without a solid underpinning of considered gameplay. Will just have to see I guess!

4
gbanas92
Tue 14th Mar 2017

@PaperyWhiteBoy It could also just be wishful thinking that it's an old build haha. But yeah, compared to some of the other trailers they've shown for this, this is definitely less representative of what the actual product is going to be I think. Based on the way they've talked about the game (Gun Media I mean) I don't think they're only interested in using the title as a vessel to deliver lots of gore, but rather view it as a simply a component, so for at least that point, we should be able to breathe easy. But absolutely agreed! Underneath all of the excessive violence, Mortal Kombat and God Of War and games like that have strong core mechanics, controls, etc. underneath the visual splendor, which allows them to endure. I agree that this doesn't necessarily do anything to allay concerns about that stuff. It comes off as more of a "we love the license so here's the detail we put into replicating the movies" type thing, which I absolutely appreciate, but for wildly different reasons haha.

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